Salted Chocolate Porter
Steamworks Brewing Company

A- This pours a dark cola like brown color and shows off quite clear for a porter style. The carbonation seems to be smooth and lumbering, with only a few columns rising slowly to the top. The head starts out promising, being a couple of fingers thick and is dark toffee colored.....it fizzles out very fast unfortunately and settles literally into nothing....not even a ring around the inside of my glass....ditto for the lacing, only but an oily looking film.....nothing to write home about here

S- Fairly sweet on the aromas....can smell the salted caramel chocolate, muted dark roast malt robustness, mellow vanilla, hints of charred Earth and/or wood. There are dry cocoa notes on the finish and perhaps a little bit of dry melba toast but overall it is not a strong smelling porter.

T- Flavors are good, and the salted caramel/chocolate sweetness is definitely the most pronounced of them all. Rich vanilla truffle, cocoa powder dryness alongside dark chocolate liqueur, burnt toffee and as this warms, the salt starts hitting the back and sides of my palate....I'm enjoying it more as it warms. The finish is long and settles well into the throat with a sweet and salty character, requiring another taste!

M/O- The body is medium and the carbonation, as I suspected, is creamy and the bubbles are small, allowing the flavors to hit the palate well. It is quite drinkable and the alcohol is well hidden, making this a decent porter, however, I don't find it to be say a top 100 in my books....I do like it though....it is a brew that you don't need to put a lot of thought into if that makes sense?! I'd buy it again....

Poured from a can at fridge temp. Pours very dark brown - almost black. Almost no head. The nose is salted toffee, chocolate, malts, and slight roasty note. The taste generally follows the nose but a bit more roasted malts. Nutty, chocolate, salt, vanilla, milk, and leather. Slight dark fruit, but not overpowering. Mouthfeel is pretty thick and creamy. Overall, a really nice porter.

Appearance : Dark brown pour with nice foam, good retention with nice lacing.
Smell : Dark malts, coffee, chocolate, roastiness. Is that salt masking the chocolate aromas?
Taste : Rich malt flavour to start with good bitterness. The saltiness and chocolate flavours that are intended are minimal but there is some salt is certainly there. Great finish, almost a "warm" sensation in the mouth shortly after swallowing, very nice.
Overall: A nice porter that is well put together. I enjoyed the dryness of the chocolate and the warm finish and aftertaste. I am undecided whether or not I enjoy salt in my beer.

Appearance - Pours a dark chocolate brown with two fingers of bubbly tan head.

Smell - roasted malts, earthy and leafy hops, cocoa bean, saltiness, and earthy yeast.

Taste - roasted malts upfront followed by a pleasant saltiness. The cocoa bean, earthy and leafy hops come through next. The brew is finished off by the earthy yeast.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes smooth with the cocoa and saltiness lingering.

Overall - A very well balanced and flavourful porter. I like how the salt doesn't overpower the roasted malts or cocoa but instead works in harmony with them.

650ml bottle - more salty/sweet brew for the imminent holiday season.

This beer pours a fairly solid black, with the barest of amber basal edges, and a teeming tower of puffy, finely foamy, and mildly bubbly brown head, which leaves a few instances of ocean spume lace around the glass as it quickly sinks out of sight.

It smells of bready and grainy caramel malt, more bitter than sweet cocoa powder, a bit of free-range ashiness, saltine crackers, and some plain leafy, earthy, and herbal green hop bitters. The taste is grainy and doughy caramel malt, a lesser biscuity caramel sweetness, saline solution, dark chocolate wafers, cold cream, faint generic ground coffee notes, mild char, and more understated earthy, musty, and leafy verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate supporting frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and generally smooth, with perhaps a touch of roastiness making some unwelcome waves here. It finishes off-dry, the salted cocoa and bland caramel the order of the lingering day.

Overall - this is an agreeable enough version of this augmented style, with the salt and chocolate prevailing, in the absence of any sturdier base brew, for what it's worth. It has me getting just a bit more into the upcoming Christmas season, if that means anything at all.

 

Steamworks Brewpub 'Salted Chocolate Porter' @ 6.0% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $6
A-pour is a cola brown from the bottle to a near black in the glass with a small tan head leaving a spotty lace along the pint
S-toasted & roasted chocolate malts
T-ok porter , salt comes thru on the swallow
MF-ok carbonation , medium body
Ov-dissapointing brew
prost LampertLand